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The new vice-president of business acceleration and transformation at Pernod Ricard, Donny Tobin, believes clear spirits can drive growth in the industry due to their versatility across occasions.

Festivals can act as an extension of the on-premise for Pernod Ricard

Donny Tobin recently transitioned into his new role after previously serving as chief financial officer (CFO) at The Absolut Group. He has been at Pernod Ricard for more than 20 years.

He describes the new remit as looking into the changes in the drinks industry, working with markets, identifying growth terrains and “converting those into the portfolio strategy”.

Tobin’s scope covers the Crystal unit of Pernod’s newly restructured global operations, which accounts for the company’s clear spirits. He maintains these spirits have always been a priority for Pernod, but the company was previously very brand-focused. Now these brands have been brought together under one umbrella, separating them from the aged spirits (like whisky and Champagne) that sit under the ‘Gold’ unit.

The Crystal arm includes brands such as Absolut Vodka, Malibu liqueur, Olmeca Tequila, Havana Club rum, Altos Tequila, Del Maguey mezcal and Monkey 47 gin.

“It’s how you segment the portfolio against the consumer and market trends that you want to capture,” he tells The Spirits Business.

Instead of a brand-led growth strategy, the focus is on “identifying emerging occasions” and reacting quickly, which he believes can be both a challenge and an opportunity.

“The consumer is much more dynamic than when I was in my early 20s, occasions and experiences [now] emerge much quicker,” he says. “At the end of the day, your customers are the ones that will drive the growth.

“The key then is injecting speed in terms of how you adapt to those and it’s all based on consumer and data insights, but then you need to translate that back into your portfolio and leverage them.”

When assessing the direction the industry is heading in, Tobin believes clear spirits are the ones to watch. “Clear spirits is a clear growth driver because it’s got that versatility to be able to uniquely position against a lot of occasions in emerging trends.

“If you look at clear spirits, you’ve got premium cocktails, simple serves, RTDs, lower-ABV, and non-alc.”

Festivals: ‘the new on-premise’

Tobin says Pernod Ricard tries to anchor its portfolio in “occasion-led growth” because there are “much broader occasions than there were in the past”.

“Traditionally our industry – and it still remains very important – has been later in the evening with higher energy, but daytime socialising, apéritifs and brunch are all expanding our occasions that bring more consumers into touch with our products,” he explains.

Donny Tobin joined Pernod in 2003

Pernod’s Crystal portfolio merges naturally into occasions, which Tobin highlights with Lillet, Italicus and Malfy Gin, and how they serve the apéritif moment.

“We don’t want to chase every trend with every brand, but to leverage the occasions that are here to stay and lean in with the brands that can play against those occasions,” he says. “The key is not to try and win everywhere with everything.”

As one of the fastest-growing alcohol categories, Tobin says Pernod approaches ready-to-drink (RTD) as an “extension of our brands”, which is “where clear spirits can also be very versatile.”

“RTD is one of the key growth categories for us, but not a category that’s completely separate – it’s an extension of our portfolio and our brands,” he says.

Absolut’s partnerships with Sprite and Ocean Spray are cited as examples, as well as Malibu and its collaboration with Dole. “We’ve leveraged partnerships that are authentic to extend our portfolio and to make it more accessible,” Tobin says.

“If you look at Absolut and Malibu, we play more than ever in RTDs as an extension of how consumers can experience our brand,” he continues. “RTD has grown from 6% [of total beverage alcohol volume share in the US] in 2019 to 13% in 2025 [IWSR], it’s clearly a growth train, but it’s still set in an occasion-driven moment.”

“That’s where we see growth in our industry, not necessarily brand-led, but occasion and experience-led, and RTDs is just tapping into those moments.”

Tobin feels festivals are a setting where brands can really grab attention. He notes that “some people are calling it the new on-premise”.

Festivals are a big pull for Pernod Ricard, particularly in the summer. “Every market has a local or regional festival that is much bigger than what you discover, like with Untold in Romania, Tomorrowland in Belgium, or Coachella and Stagecoach in the States,” Tobin says.

“Summer festivals are projected to grow 7-8% over the coming years [Business Research Insights’ Music Festival Market Report] and Live Nation is reporting double-digit ticket sales. If you leverage that against the stats of where 80% of the festival-goers are Gen Z or Millennials, and of those, nearly 75% try new brands at a festival.

“You have to show up to be discovered,” he adds. “Festivals are a key area that we lean into as a growth opportunity, and we try to leverage our portfolio across the festival landscape, and then, of course, we lean in where we see good traction.”

Discovery in emerging markets

For emerging markets that have historically veered more towards brown spirits, Tobin highlights Latin America (Latam), particularly Brazil and Mexico, where there is discovery of the versatility that clear spirits bring.

“It’s a case that the trends that we have seen in Europe and the US, from the cocktail trend to the way that we approach versatility, are now emerging into these markets,“ he says.

RTDs show where clear spirits can be versatile

He adds: “As we know that the world is much more informed about what’s happening everywhere, and these experiences and consumer trends that have emerged earlier in the Western world are now emerging in Latam, and Asia as well.

“When we look at clear spirits, China and Brazil have grown more recently by 9%, and India with 24% [IWSR 2024-25 preliminary data from March 2026], which just gives you a sense of the opportunity.”

Ultimately, Tobin says the strategy for the Crystal portfolio going forward is to stay consumer-focused and close to what is happening on social media.

“We need to understand the world around moderation as well,” he adds, noting how Pernod leverages its portfolio into the low-and-no space with its apéritif and gins.

“We’ve got Lillet, Ramazzotti, Beefeater 0.0%. I see it as an opportunity because I read a stat that 80% of non-alc drinkers are actually alcohol full-strength drinkers as well, but they choose and pick their moments,” he says. “We’re offering them a non-alc version to have an equal experience of a good cocktail moment, and 15 years ago in our industry that wasn’t really possible. For me, non-alc is actually helping people embrace convivial moments.”

Tobin highlights RTDs again too, which aren’t new, but “the pandemic lit a fire under the category, so we set up a dedicated RTD unit back in 2021”, he says.

“These are the organisational changes and portfolio changes that you need to do very quickly to leverage and go against opportunities.

“We can always be better, but it’s about staying in tune with what’s happening in culturally relevant moments and then adapting at speed – which I think today, we are pretty good at.”